Written Answers Thursday 22 March 2007

Scottish Executive

Asylum Seekers

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in respect of the implementation of its agreement on the treatment of asylum seeker families reached with the Home Office in March 2006.

Robert Brown: We have made significant progress implementing the measures in the March 2006 Agreement.

  The Minister for Education and Young People wrote to the Education and Communities Committees earlier this week confirming that we have reached agreement with Glasgow City Council and the Home Office on lead professional arrangements. This will ensure that relevant health, welfare and education information is made available to the Home Office during consideration of asylum cases involving children.

  That letter also details the progress made in implementing each element of the agreement, for example the inspection of local services and enhanced background checks on all staff involved in removals

Care of Elderly People

Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will increase the level of payments to those in receipt of free personal and nursing care from the £210 per week introduced in July 2002.

Lewis Macdonald: The future rates of payment for personal and nursing care to self funders in care homes are due to be considered as part of the spending review.

  The levels of funding for these payments will have risen by £14 million between 2003-04, the first full year of implementation, and 2007-08, an increase of some 18.7%.

Dentistry

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all petitions it has received since 1 January 2007 about the provision of dentistry or dental services, showing (a) the names of the petitioners and (b) the number of signatories.

Lewis Macdonald: No such petitions have been received since 1 January 2007.

Early Years

Dr Sylvia Jackson (Stirling) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many parents and children were supported by Sure Start Scotland through group or intensive provision in the Stirling local authority area in the last year for which information is available.

Robert Brown: Data on the number of individual beneficiaries of services provided under the Sure Start Scotland programme, broken down by local authority area, is not held centrally.

Elections

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the First Minister what representations the Scottish Executive has made, or is making, to the UK Government to the effect that the Scottish Parliament elections should go ahead on 3 May 2007 as well as the local government elections.

Mr Jack McConnell: Scottish ministers and the Scottish Executive are in regular contact with the UK Government about a range of issues, including planning for the combined Scottish parliamentary and local government elections, which will take place on 3 May. I have received assurances from the Secretary of State that he does not consider there are any grounds whatsoever to delay or postpone the Scottish Parliament elections and preparations are also continuing as planned for the local government elections.

Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005

Dr Sylvia Jackson (Stirling) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions have been brought in Stirling under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005.

Elish Angiolini QC: Since the introduction of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, a total of 11 charges under this act have been reported to the Procurator Fiscal at Stirling. In relation to nine of these charges, court proceedings were initiated, one was dealt with by way of a warning and one is still under consideration.

  Notes:

  1. This information has been extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s case management database. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies. If a Procurator Fiscal amends a charge submitted by a reporting agency, the database will record details only of the amended charge.

  2. The database is charge-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.

Gypsies/Travellers

Mr Andrew Welsh (Angus) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what extra funding it plans to allocate to Angus Council for the provision of sites for Travelling People.

Rhona Brankin: In April 2006 Angus Council was awarded a grant of £98,000 in 2006-07 and £564,000 in 2007-08 for the redevelopment of its Gypsy/Travellers site at Tayock. There are no plans to allocate any additional funding.

Health

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under the age of 12 were classified as (a) obese and (b) overweight in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Lewis Macdonald: The specific information requested is not available centrally.

  However, the Scottish Health Survey gives estimates of the prevalence of obese and overweight boys and girls at Scotland level by age group for the years 1998 and 2003. Data at NHS board level are not available from this source. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271.

  (See Table 5.7 on page 125.)

  In addition, all NHS boards in Scotland provide a Child Health Surveillance Programme where children are offered routine reviews at various stages of their life. The majority of boards record these reviews using the electronic child health systems, CHSP-Pre-School and CHSP-School. The latest available information from these systems on levels of obesity and overweight derived from height and weight measurements collected at routine health reviews is published for NHS boards participating in CHSP-School and CHSP-Pre-School at: http://www.isdscotland.org/childobesity.

  (Click on obesity statistics to access a list of available tables and charts).

Hospitals

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients were admitted to NHS hospitals for (a) drug-related and (b) alcohol-related illnesses and injuries in each year from 2002 to 2006, broken down by NHS board.

Lewis Macdonald: Information on drug-related and alcohol-related hospital discharges is provided in Tables 1 to 4 of discharges from NHS hospitals with drug or alcohol related illnesses or injuries from 2002-2006 by NHS Board  a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 42313).

Hospitals

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what alternative provision has been made for elderly people in south Lochaber by NHS Highland in respect of its application to close Glencoe Hospital; how many nursing care beds NHS Highland assesses will be sufficient to meet the needs of the south Lochaber area following closure of the hospital and whether it will make public the information on which this assessment was made, including any analysis of the demographic trend in numbers of elderly people until 2024, and whether the Executive considers that such analysis will meet the needs of those who are expected to provide nursing care in the future.

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it will make of the suitability of residential homes to provide nursing care in considering NHS Highland's application to close Glencoe Hospital and whether such assessment will consider the number of nursing beds that will be require to be provided and when the necessary work to adapt residential homes is likely to be completed.

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will respond to NHS Highland in respect of the application to close Glencoe Hospital prior to dissolution of the Parliament.

Lewis Macdonald: NHS Highland and The Highland Council have submitted a joint proposal for the future delivery of care for elderly people in the Lochaber area to Scottish ministers.

  The details of these proposals, including the number of nursing care beds needed for the future and consideration of population changes, are operational matters for NHS Highland and The Highland Council. In considering these proposals, ministers will need to be satisfied that they are consistent with the principles set out in Delivering for Health and Executive policy for planning services for older people, and that they have been developed with the full involvement of planning partners and are based on robust evidence and best practice. Ministers will also need to be satisfied that the board has undertaken public consultation in line with Scottish Executive guidance.

  The Scottish Health Council has yet to submit a report on NHS Highlands engagement and consultation process. Once all of the information is available then ministers will consider the matter very carefully, including all representations received, before coming to a final decision.

Local Government

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what rules and guidelines govern the conduct of senior managers in local government, particularly in respect of their obligations to local residents and parliamentary representatives.

Mr Tom McCabe: Local authorities are independent corporate bodies and are responsible for their own staffing matters. The Local Government Code for Employees in Scotland , produced by COSLA assists local authorities in setting out minimum standards of conduct expected of its employees. It provides guidelines on relationships with the public and political neutrality. Local authorities may also have their own codes which have the same affect as the National Code . In the event that any local government employee breaches the code of conduct that is in place, a report can be submitted to the council’s monitoring officer, who is then required to submit a full report for consideration to the full council if the monitoring officer considers that the council, or any of its committees or officers, has contravened any enactment or code of practice which is in place.

Local Government Finance

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will examine the case for taking account of day visitors and the services they require in its review of the formula for the distribution of GAE funding to local authorities.

Mr Tom McCabe: Although data on tourists and commuters are currently included in the local government funding distribution formula, no reliable data are held centrally, specifically, on day visitors within Scotland. To address this, the Scottish Executive is currently working with VisitScotland and COSLA to decide how best to capture these data. Once the data have been obtained and verified, the Executive will consider with COSLA how best to include this in the distribution formula as part of the on-going review of the formula.

Older People

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an update on the action being taken to improve care services for elderly people in Argyll and Bute.

Lewis Macdonald: The Joint Improvement Team has been working with Argyll and Bute Council and NHS Highland to address high levels of delayed discharge from hospital and implementation issues around free personal care. Some improvements have been made in these areas, but more remains to be done. The Social Work Inspection Agency has brought forward its planned inspection of social work services in Argyll and Bute and will report to ministers later this year.

Parliamentary Questions

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what protocols exist in respect of it stating in answer to parliamentary questions that "this information is not held centrally".

Ms Margaret Curran: While subjects such as health or education fall within the general responsibility of the Scottish ministers, "day-to-day" responsibility often lies with bodies such as local authorities or health boards. In general, preparation of answers should be based on the assumption that it is not appropriate for ministers to answer for these bodies, unless the Executive has a role (e.g. in setting policy or in collecting statistics centrally). Where the Executive collects information centrally (e.g. number of hospital patients) it would be appropriate for the information to be provided in the answer. In many cases, such information will be in published form and will already be in the public domain or available on the Internet and a link will be provided in the answer.

Parliamentary Questions

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many written parliamentary questions have received an answer stating that "this information is not held centrally" in each parliamentary session.

Ms Margaret Curran: The information requested can be obtained on the Parliament website which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Postal Services

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on whether the draft EU postal services directive will impact on the number of sub-post offices and post offices in Scotland, in particular those providing services in sparsely populated areas and on the islands.

Nicol Stephen: The Directive relates to postal services and not to post offices and should not therefore impact on the number of post offices in Scotland.

Public Transport

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on funding for the Haymarket to Granton section of the Edinburgh tram line.

Tavish Scott: Our commitment of £375 million plus inflation (£450 million to £500 million) is a contribution towards the capital cost of Phase 1a of the network which runs from Ocean Terminal to Edinburgh Airport.

  There is proven demand for the tram network along the route of Phase 1a. The 1b Tramline will continue to be assessed, including such factors as future developments in the area.

Rail Network

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on when the GSM-R communication system will first come into use on any part of the Scottish railway network.

Tavish Scott: A trial of the Global System for Mobile communications – Railways (GSM-R) is expected to be carried out in two areas of Scotland later this year.

Rail Network

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on any plans for the implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System on any part of Scotland’s railway network.

Tavish Scott: Implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) will be rolled out on a GB-wide basis. Trials of this system are expected to commence in 2008 on the Cambrian Route in Wales. Trials and evaluation are expected to be carried out over a number of years and it is likely to be several years before trials will be carried out in Scotland.

Rail Network

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Transport Scotland has taken account of the general increase in rail usage, alongside existing demand projections for the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link project, in the procurement of rolling stock.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Transport Scotland is taking account of the 3% per annum passenger growth identified in Network Rail’s Network Utilisation Strategy in the procurement of rolling stock for the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link project.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what patronage assumptions were made by Transport Scotland in respect of the procurement of rolling stock for the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link project.

Tavish Scott: A rolling stock procurement plan is being developed by Transport Scotland alongside the wider rolling stock procurement plan to address the requirements of both major projects and the increasing demand for rail services.

  In planning the procurement of rolling stock for the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link project Transport Scotland has taken account of existing growth projections, including Network Rail’s Route Utilisation Strategy. Transport Scotland remains committed to ensuring that sufficient supplies of trains are provided to meet projected passenger demand.

  Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.

Rail Network

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the current patronage projections are for the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link project.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the patronage projections are for the Helensburgh to Waverley railway line following the completion of the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link.

Tavish Scott: The patronage projections for the Airdrie to Bathgate Rail Link project, developed using the base case assumption from Helensburgh to Waverley, show an additional 13,350 boardings daily resulting in an annual increase of 4.1 million. The daily boarding projection was contained in the promoter’s evidence submitted to Parliament on 8 January 2007.

Rail Network

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the original patronage projections were for the Larkhall to Milngavie railway line and what the current patronage level is, expressed in passenger journey numbers and showing the percentage difference.

Tavish Scott: The original patronage projections for the Larkhall – Milngavie service, as worked up in the business case by Strathclyde Passenger Transport in 2001, shows 225,060 passenger journeys per annum. The current patronage level is 343,766 passenger journeys per annum, an increase of 53% in patronage against the projection. These are passenger journeys for the new stations on the Larkhall branch.

Rail Network

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how the Access for All fund is being used to improve railway stations in Scotland.

Tavish Scott: The Access for All fund is being used to tackle accessibility problems at stations so that people with disabilities, the elderly and infirm as well as those with heavy luggage and pushchairs, have an unobstructed and obstacle free path from the station entrance to the platform.

Rail Network

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what survey work has been carried out on railway stations to assess their accessibility.

Tavish Scott: First ScotRail carried out a survey of all of their stations within six months of taking over the franchise in October 2004. The resulting information about stations has been published as part of the disabled Persons Protection Policy and can be found on the First ScotRail website. This information is continually being revised to take account of completed improvements.

Rail Network

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the results of any surveys undertaken to assess the accessibility of railway stations.

Tavish Scott: Yes.

  Access surveys are being carried out as part of the Network Rail works at the stations selected for Access for All funding. Information from these surveys will be published. Any other surveys of accessibility at railway stations carried out on behalf of the Scottish Executive will be published.

Rail Network

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria were used to determine the order in which railway stations would have works to improve accessibility.

Tavish Scott: I am pleased to inform you that on 19 March 2007 Barrhead and Cupar stations were added to the list for access for all improvements. The criteria used for selecting these stations included footfall, areas where there are fewer alternative transport modes available, interchange facilities and location of alternative stations.

Renewable Energy

Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-28485 by Peter Peacock on 4 October 2006, whether any further awards have been made towards renewable energy installation projects for schools, showing also the amount awarded to each local authority.

Hugh Henry: This information requested is set out in the following table;

  

 Local Authority
Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) Grant 
(subsequent to information provided in S2W-28485)


 Aberdeen City
£23,701


 Fife
£2,641.55


 Highland
£70,546


 North Lanarkshire
£109,576


 Stirling
£15,000



  In addition, since the question in October, we have offered grant funding of £400,000 to support the installation of biomass heating in the Perth and Kinross PPP Schools Project.

Renewable Energy

Shiona Baird (North East Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive how many representations it received in respect of the Lewis Wind Power application for a wind farm on Lewis (a) during the formal consultation period and (b) in total and, of these, how many were (i) in support of and (ii) opposed to the application.

Allan Wilson: In addition to the Lewis Wind Power application, there were two addenda submitted by the developer. These attracted 10,234 representations in total, up to the last consultation date of 5 February 2007

  An overall total of 11,456 representations have been received so far, including 1,222 representations received after the 5 February deadline.

  From the total number of representations received, 59 were recorded in support and 11,397 against the development.

Residential Care

Trish Godman (West Renfrewshire) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what recent discussions have taken place with representatives of the Care Commission anent confidential reports or complaints from employees of residential care homes for elderly people, in both the private and public sectors, about inadequate care or neglect of residents of such homes and the advice given to the families of those residents in respect of a guarantee of anonymity when concerns need to be raised.

Lewis Macdonald: The investigation of complaints is an operational matter for the Care Commission. The Care Commission published its current complaints procedure in September 2004 following the approval of Scottish Ministers. Details of the Complaints Procedure can be found on the Commission’s website at www.carecommission.com .

  The Scottish Parliaments Health Committee Care Inquiry Report, which was published on 13 June 2006, recommended that the results of enquiries into complaints which the Care Commission upholds, should be more widely publicised. The Executives response to the report noted that the Independent Review of Regulation, Audit, Inspection and Complaints being conducted by Professor Lorne Crerar on behalf of Scottish ministers is considering, amongst other things, how public service complaints are accessed. The review is expected to report in the summer.

  In response to the Health Committees Report, the Care Commission undertook to consider how it could publicise complaints investigations without compromising the anonymity of a complainant or breaching data protection legislation. In January this year the commission launched an enhanced care service list on its website. This puts into the public domain a wide range of information about each registered service, including summary data on complaints and a record of enforcement notices.

Roads

Shiona Baird (North East Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-31789 by Tavish Scott on 1 March 2007, of the 987 members of the public who corresponded with the Executive on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route between 1 February 2006 and 31 January 2007, how many were in favour and how many were opposed.

Tavish Scott: The nature of the correspondence is such that an exact breakdown as requested cannot be provided. Approximately 3% of the correspondents were in favour and 43% opposed with the remaining 54% expressing no opinion. Some of the correspondents also wrote in on a number of different occasions.

Roads

Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an update on progress on the construction of the Fochabers to Mosstodloch bypass, giving details of the scheduled date for the Court of Session hearing and the latest estimated cost and earliest start date in the event that the appeal is not upheld.

Tavish Scott: The appeal is scheduled to begin on 8 May 2007 and run for three days. A decision will then be issued by the court. As the timescale for this is outwith the control of Scottish ministers it is not possible to estimate at this stage when construction of the scheme will start.

  The latest estimated cost is £18 million to £21 million exclusive of value added tax.

  Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.

Small Businesses

Shiona Baird (North East Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that small businesses are not disproportionately penalised by the full cost recovery charging schemes of non-departmental public bodies.

Nicol Stephen: In charging for services it is desirable to avoid unnecessary public expenditure and, where possible, eliminate inappropriate hidden subsidies. Small businesses should not, however, be disproportionately penalised through these charging arrangements.

Water Charges

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it proposes to continue to take account of the charitable sector in its consultation on water and sewerage charges beyond 2010.

Sarah Boyack: The Scottish Executive expects to consult in the autumn on its principles of charging for the regulatory period 2010-14.

Young People

Mrs Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance is being provided to those not in employment, education or training in the Linlithgow parliamentary constituency.

Allan Wilson: Those not in employment, education or training (NEET) in Linlithgow receive help from a range of delivery partners including education, social work, health, careers advice, training, further education, community learning, youth work and wider voluntary services. We have asked local partnerships to address how their mainstream resources could be used more effectively to prevent and reduce NEET.

  Additionally, we have provided £9.35 million to support NEET planning across Scotland over the next two years. West Lothian Council will receive £75,000 in 2006-07 and 2007-08.